Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Changeling’ On Apple TV+, Where A Man Searches For His Wife And Child Through A New York That’s Both Familiar And Strange

Remember the first episode of Lovecraft Country? Sure, it was scary, but it was mostly rooted in the real world, much more rooted there than the subsequent episodes were. It deftly established the main characters and just what they were dealing with before the supernatural elements of the story kicked in in earnest. A new Apple series, based on a 2017 novel, does that, as well.

THE CHANGELING: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

Opening Shot: A dark, raging sea. A narrator (Victor LaValle, the author of the 2017 book on which The Changeling is based) says, “Once upon a time, a specific time, July 5, 1825 to be exact, 52 men and women sailed out of Norway in an undersized sloop they named Restoration.” He goes on to talk about how the ship somehow made it through violent storms that should have sank it. “They had help, that’s how.”

The Gist: Essentially, the story is for LaValle to say, “Tell me about your journey, and I’ll tell you who you are.”

Then we switch to New York City, 2010. “This fairy tale starts in a library in Queens,” says LaValle. There, Apollo Kagwa (LaKeith Stanfield) sees Emma Valentine (Clark Backo), a librarian, dealing with a mentally ill unhoused person loudly looking for the bathroom; he comes down to her circulation desk and asks her out. She says no.

Then we go back to 1968, and see where Apollo’s father, Brian West (Jared Abrahamson), a parole officer, meets his mother, Lillian Kagwa (Adina Porter), a secretary for a man who is one of West’s parolees. He’s taken with her, but she repeatedly turns him down. In fact, she turns him down for nine years, finally saying yes in 1977.

This parallels with Apollo and Emma; she finally says yes after he asks her out about a half-dozen times. Both have great first dates, but both Apollo and Lillian, who think back on when they were kids and teens, tell their dates that “one sad story is enough for a first date.”

What are the sad stories? Brian and Lillian fall for each other, get married, and have Apollo — Rocky was a big influence on both of them — but Brian leaves by the time Apollo is 4. He keeps having nightmares, even into adulthood, of his father coming back, but Brian never says anything in those nightmares. Lillian’s sad story involves her brother getting shot and killed by soldiers back in her home country, who overreacted to him refusing to get out of the car at a checkpoint.

Emma didn’t want to go out with Apollo because she knew she was leaving for a months-long sabbatical to Brazil. But he vows to wait for her. While she’s there, she meets an old woman in a place known to have dangerous spirits. The woman ties a string around her wrist and tells her to make three wishes; when the string falls off, the wishes will come true. The woman warns, “never cut it!” When she returns, heartened that Apollo waited at the airport for her through all the flight delays, he boldly cuts the string, citing his childhood mantra, “I am the god Apollo!”

They get married and almost immediately, Emma gets pregnant. On their first date, Apollo told Emmy that all he ever wanted to be was a good father, so he’s overjoyed. After a dinner where her friend Michelle (Rasheda Crockett) tells Apollo that Emma had some adventures in Brazil he doesn’t know about, Emma goes into labor. They get on the subway to have that home birth they were planning on, but the subway gets stuck and she ends up giving birth to their son on the floor of the train.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? The Changeling has very much the same spooky vibe as Lovecraft Country.

Our Take: Much like Lovecraft Country, the first episode of The Changeling deals mostly with the real world, but nicely sets up the relationships that will be at the heart of the show. Lillian, her son Apollo, and his wife Emma are all tied together in some spiritual way, and the way creator Kelly Marcel sets up LaValle’s story shows us that spiritual relationship.

So while we don’t end the first episode immersed in what Apollo is going to have to deal with after the birth of his son, we’re sure as hell interested in seeing what happens next. The end of the episode, as Apollo and Emma sit on the floor of the subway car, clutching their newborn son, is interspersed with scenes that indicate that Apollo is going to go on a journey that takes him places that aren’t exactly rooted in the real New York we see in the first episode.

Those who know the book know what that journey is, but we won’t mention it here. But with Stanfield doing his usually standout job as the reserved but bold Apollo and Backo showing how the seemingly-controlled Emma isn’t quite what she projects, the first episode really makes us sit up and pay attention, looking forward to what comes next.

Sex and Skin: After Apollo and Emma get married, we see the two of them naked (with the right bits covered) and making love.

Parting Shot: As we mention above, the post-birth scene is intercut with scenes that show just where Apollo and Emma are going next. LaValle says, “Tell me your journey, each of you. Tell me your life’s voyage, and I’ll tell you who you are.”

Sleeper Star: Alexis Louder is fantastic as the young Lillian; Adina Porter will play Lillian as Apollo sets out on his journey.

Most Pilot-y Line: At the dinner with Michelle, Apollo frets over the prices on the menu, to the point where he just tells the waiter, “I’ll just have the bread.” Not sure if this quirk will come back later in the series or if that’s just something that’s a first-episode character building scene.

Our Call: STREAM IT. Thanks to a fine performance from Stanfield as well as a story that’s just starting to get spooky by the end of the first episode, The Changeling hooks in the viewer and gets them ready to follow Apollo on a journey that promises to be full of scares and surprises.

Joel Keller (@joelkeller) writes about food, entertainment, parenting and tech, but he doesn’t kid himself: he’s a TV junkie. His writing has appeared in the New York Times, Slate, Salon, RollingStone.com, VanityFair.com, Fast Company and elsewhere.